Simply Fable-ulous

Aaaand it’s time for another timely review of a game that’s not terribly new (it’s been out about 6 months now). The subject this time is Fable 2.

I’ve been quite enjoying the game, but then I liked the first one. The plot is pretty straightforward and has held few surprises, but the gameplay is solid, with some decent puzzles, good exploration, and solid combat. I don’t rely on just one attack type that I’ve mastered, but mix things up every fight, switching between melee, ranged, and magical attacks.

Customization is also fairly good. There are a lot of expressions to learn; expressions give your character the ability to perform emotes, which can influence NPCs to change how they feel about you. Likewise, there are a decent number of skills to teach the dog that is your constant companion. Defeating foes gives one of four types of experience: melee, ranged, magical, or general experience; each type can be used to raise the associated skill types, and general can be used for anything.

The variety of equipment available seems a bit limited… there are only a handful of weapon types for melee and for ranged, meaning I tend to use the same weapons for quite some time. The clothing is largely cosmetic, though it can give bonuses to a few stats like attractiveness, which results in NPCs finding you more… wait for it… attractive.

There are two axes of ethical development: good vs evil and purity vs corruption. Good and evil are self-explanatory, while purity relates to abstaining from vices and being generous, while corruption comes from eating rich foods and charging too much rent of your tenants, assuming you play the real estate game. Food is rather important for ethical development, oddly, as well as affecting one’s physique in obvious ways. Eating salty peanuts increases purity, eating celery makes on more thin, eating tofu makes one more good and more pure, eating cheese makes one fatter, etc.

As is my wont, I’m playing through now with a good and pure character. I’m enjoying the game enough though that I might well wait a few months and revisit it, playing an evil and corrupt character. I have to imagine it’d be a lot easier to make money by stealing than by doing honest work like I have been (bartending, blacksmithing, and woodchopping).